Why isn't bass cut a more popular feature on a guitar?

[laxu]

I gotta say, I love the treble/bass setup on my 1996 G&L Legacy. It uses 1M pots so it has more range than a typical Strat.

What that range gives you is that you have a lot of treble, and turning the treble knob down to about 5 gives you something closer to a regular Strat. But the extra treble range is really useful if you play for example finger style where you have less highs in the first place. No need to do all that at the amp end.

But getting to the bass cut, it's just such a useful feature. If you feel like e.g your neck pickup needs a bit more cut, cut the bass on the guitar just a little bit to clean it up. With humbuckers the bass cut becomes even more useful as a way to tighten up the sound.

I liked this feature so much I installed it on my Flaxwood Rautia which had a less useful "master volume with individual treble cut knob for each pickup" setup. It's a super easy mod since all it needs is a capacitor. While the stock 500K pot didn't work as well as it does on the G&L, it's good enough.

 

[Eagle]

Best done with the amp IMO.

 

[FuzzyAce]

100% agree. I wired this circuit in most of my guitars this year. 500K works for me, but 1M is fine too.

 

[FuzzyAce]

Best done with the amp IMO.

Not imo - not if you want the flexibility at your guitar? You can have both.
What's great about the bass control is at max cut if trims the gain and cleans up the signal nicely, especially when using a fair amount of dirt. Reduce the cut and it starts to gain up and saturate more which is useful. It sounds more natural than wiring in something like a coil tap or parallel/series switch. I like it better than a treble bleed circuit, although those are quite useful too. And of course all options can be had in one guitar.

 

[CBHScott]

Reverend’s bread and butter; they do this extremely well.

 

[laxu]

Best done with the amp IMO.

The problem with this is you don't have something you can tweak on the fly.

I'm the type who almost never has guitar volume or tone on 10 because the amp is dialed so that those settings would be too gainy and too bright intentionally, to give the ability to go up and down both ways as needed.

Sure, you could figure out expression pedal setups on modelers and whatnot or use a pedal for bass cut...but since the option to have it on the guitar is so easy and simple, why not just have it there?

 

[TubeStack]

Guitarists don't want to “cut” anything, only boost.

 

[FuzzyAce]

Guitarists don't want to “cut” anything, only boost.

Yes -- but to boost you must first cut.

 

[TubeStack]

Yes -- but to boost you must first cut.

 

[Eagle]

The problem with this is you don't have something you can tweak on the fly.

I'm the type who almost never has guitar volume or tone on 10 because the amp is dialed so that those settings would be too gainy and too bright intentionally, to give the ability to go up and down both ways as needed.

Sure, you could figure out expression pedal setups on modelers and whatnot or use a pedal for bass cut...but since the option to have it on the guitar is so easy and simple, why not just have it there?

Active eq is so much better for this. I prefer this to be outside of the guitar electronics unless you have active pickups and then it can be done easily. Most people still prefer passive pickups and I can so easily set it up on my Axe in my digital rig or in the fx on my wdw .

 

[DrewJD82]

Yes -- but to boost you must first cut.

As funny as it is, Dimebag's rig was just a series of EQ's cutting and boosting all over the place.

 

[ragingplatypi]

I gotta say, I love the treble/bass setup on my 1996 G&L Legacy. It uses 1M pots so it has more range than a typical Strat.

What that range gives you is that you have a lot of treble, and turning the treble knob down to about 5 gives you something closer to a regular Strat. But the extra treble range is really useful if you play for example finger style where you have less highs in the first place. No need to do all that at the amp end.

But getting to the bass cut, it's just such a useful feature. If you feel like e.g your neck pickup needs a bit more cut, cut the bass on the guitar just a little bit to clean it up. With humbuckers the bass cut becomes even more useful as a way to tighten up the sound.

I liked this feature so much I installed it on my Flaxwood Rautia which had a less useful "master volume with individual treble cut knob for each pickup" setup. It's a super easy mod since all it needs is a capacitor. While the stock 500K pot didn't work as well as it does on the G&L, it's good enough.

Agreed . I have an old Reverend with P-90s that didn’t have the bass cut, and I did this mod on it. It’s so fantastic. I feel like it goes from single coil to P-90 to humbucker with a twist of the knob. For live playing I’m able to just twist until I find my frequency to sit perfectly in the mix.

 

[murphy brown]

Probably it is more for a specific range/type of guitar?

 

[ragingplatypi]

I think it’s not more popular because people don’t want to mess with their tone knobs.

 

[sleewell]

Reverend’s bread and butter; they do this extremely well.

big fan of this. helps out a lot.

 

[marsonic]

since the option to have it on the guitar is so easy and simple, why not just have it there?

IMHO, because -

• I already have the bass control down on my "amp", pretty much regardless of the amp model out of the few I actually use.
• I find the treble cuts much more useful, and prefer more high-cut for the bridge pickup, which means at least 2 tone knobs (e.g., I'd immediately put at least one dual-concentric knob on a tele).
• I find separate volume controls (whether independent or interactive) more useful.
• A lot of gain/distortion/OD/boost pedals already do it, even if in a slower-to-tweak way.
• 6 knobs on a 2-pickup guitar is a lot, even if you use dual-concentric pots to reduce the physical clutter.
• Even if I added a fourth knob to a Strat, it would be a volume for the bridge pickup, not a bass cut. So, it would be up to at least 5 knobs before I considered it.
• It's incredibly common for me to go days playing a Strat without any of the tone knobs on 10.
• In a lot of real ways, I think the last thing a single coil guitar needs is less bass.
• I specifically like the warm, full sound of a neck humbucker, and reducing bass more than my amp already does makes me wonder why I'm not playing a Junior.

I took the PTB wiring out of my G&L legacy within a week of buying it, which was like 16 years ago. I tried a lot of different wiring schemes in that guitar, but I literally never returned it to stock (and eventually sold it with EJ Strat wiring).

I've been looking at used Reverend Volcanos off and on for a while (because Vs look cool) and I literally get the same feeling from them as I do from the G&L Legacy - that bass cut needs to go. If I end up with one, it'll probably eventually get dual-concentric volume/tone for the neck and separate volume/tone for the bridge.

I think that having a bass cut on a neck pickup and treble cut on a bridge pickup would be an interesting thing to try. But, realistically, I don't think I'd actually get that much out of it. If I want less bass from the guitar, I use the bridge pickup (and, yes, I know that it changes more than just the amount of bass) or step on a tube screamer with the gain all the way down.

Basically...I get why people think it's cool; you do you.
But I think that doing that particular thing at the guitar isn't worth the knob for me.

 

[FuzzyAce]

Different strokes for different folks.
I love having it wired in my strats, especially if you mix in a hot bridge single that has the low mid push. It's nice to have the option to cut the lows when you want less push to the amp, but still retain the treble bite.

 

[Achilles]

Pretty sure this is why there's approx. 17,342 options for adding a bass tightening boost pedal between the guitar and amp.

 

[murphy brown]

Different strokes for different folks.
I love having it wired in my strats, especially if you mix in a hot bridge single that has the low mid push. It's nice to have the option to cut the lows when you want less push to the amp, but still retain the treble bite.

Agree with you, certain features just don't sit well for someone's playing style.

 

[laxu]

Different strokes for different folks.
I love having it wired in my strats, especially if you mix in a hot bridge single that has the low mid push. It's nice to have the option to cut the lows when you want less push to the amp, but still retain the treble bite.

Yeah I use it usually to add a bit more bass for clean tones and then make it leaner for overdrive. For me not having to press a footswitch, configure an amp or pedal, and just being able to roll down a knob right there and then is handy.

I kinda want to add one to my Skervesen Shoggie 8-string, but it would require a concentric knob.